schwit1 writes: Football, America’s biggest prime-time powerhouse, has been thrust into a crisis this fall, with dwindling ratings sparking questions over whether it can remain a gold mine for television in an age when more Americans are abandoning traditional TV.

Network executives have long used the National Football League’s live games as a last line of defense against the rapid growth of “cord-cutting” and on-demand viewing upending the industry.

But now, the NFL is seeing its ratings tumble in the same way that the Olympics, awards shows and other live events have, falling more than 10 percent for the first five weeks of the season compared with the first five weeks of last season. A continued slide, executives say, could pose an even bigger danger: If football can’t survive the new age of TV, what can?

The explosion of modern entertainment options, offered on more devices and at any time, has splintered American audiences and sped TV’s decline, Hughes said. “Sports seemed to be immune from it — it was live, the last bastion of broadcast television. But [the world] has caught up to it now.”

They pointed to “a confluence of events,” including the election, to explain the ratings slide. Other weaknesses have plagued America’s most popular TV sport. Some of the league’s top players have retired or have been suspended, including Peyton Manning, Marshawn Lynch and Tom Brady, creating a star-power vacuum that may have driven casual fans away.

Add to that the cowardly way the NFL handled the Colin Kaepernick situation, which alienated so many, now former, fans.Link to Original Source

theodp writes: "Computer Science is about jobs and equity in every state in America, and it wins elections," begins Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi in a leaked May 2015 email to Hillary for America CTO Stephanie Hannon and others (including LinkedIn Executive Chairman Reid Hoffman), according to WikiLeaks. "Whichever candidate embraces it first will be seen as a visionary leader when it comes to about jobs, economic growth, and America's future [...] Computer Science is real and resonates with voters (far more than 'STEM'). Computer Science helped win the recent election in Arkansas for Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R)." Brother Hadi Partovi, CEO of tech-backed Code.org, adds: "One thing to consider, *Any* time Hillary says 'STEM', if she instead said 'Computer science' she'd have more voters understand and support her [...] for winning an election, 'STEM' is not what voters react to. " The Clinton camp seemed keen on the idea. "The founders of code.org are eager to see Hillary make statements in support of computer science education and to have us participate in the hour of code," wrote Hannon in an email to Clinton Chief Digital Strategist Teddy Goff. "I would definitely be for participating in the hour of code as POTUS did last year," replied Goff. Three months later, Hour of Code computer science tutorials were offered at a Clinton Presidential Center event celebrating back-to-school and the ex-President's birthday, which was sponsored by the Clinton Foundation in partnership with the Office of Governor Asa Hutchinson. During last December's national Hour of Code, which is run by Code.org, @HillaryClinton tweeted her support. Last July, Hadi Partovi noted that U.S. politicians are bringing K-12 computer science to the campaign trail, citing Clinton's recently released tech agenda, which vowed to "provide every student in America an opportunity to learn computer science" and "engage the private sector and nonprofits to train up to 50,000 computer science teachers in the next decade."

An anonymous reader writes: Hillary Clinton appears to wants the government to be able to un-encrypted communications for "security", but still wants people to have privacy. Even though Clinton said publicly she didn't want back-doors , privately she was asking her staff if was possible. Hillary's domestic policy adviser called Clinton's position impossible.

Nova Express writes: The lengths Hillary Clinton has gone to in order to protect her own tech privacy are well documented. Protecting the tech privacy of ordinary American privacy? Not so much. "Amid the dump of hacked emails from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta are bits and pieces of discussion that help indicate her mindset on citizen privacy and the use of encryption to protect data." When asked to come out for privacy, the Clinton campaign demurred. "When a top politician appears to take an uninvolved stance in a conflict between the executive branch and private citizens or companies, don't mistake it as neutrality. It's deference to authority. As a candidate running to be in charge of the executive branch, 'staying out of it' is really approval for the Department of Justice to push the issue to see what would happen."

Even MS has basically given up on it. Android or iOS are fine alternatives. For Android, try to get a Nexus device. After that, you can use Signal for secure texting, not sure if they still make a secure phone call app, though.

I know that Cortana has been 'permanently enabled' by Microsoft in the Anniversary Update. So you are outta luck there. I'm not sure of any hacks to blindfold the software, but that's one of the major reasons I haven't budged from 8.1 at this point.
If the software is free, you are the product.

An anonymous reader writes: An entry on Mozilla's issue tracker opened on July 17 reveals ongoing efforts from Mozilla engineers to remove the Hello system add-on from default Firefox installations starting with version 49, set for public release on September 13, 2016.

Mozilla added Hello to Firefox in version 34, released on December 1, 2014, and from the beginning, it was part of the browser's core code, but was moved in December 2015 into a separate add-on, one that came pre-installed with Firefox, making Hello its first ever system add-on.

BrendaEM writes: Many people are pleased with Windows 10, but to dig though the user interface is to see one that seem like it was never finished. In the simplified dumbed-down menus, there is not enough functionality for a user to maintain their computer. Clicking on "advanced" give you access to Windows 7-style menus, going deeper, you see menus that haven't been updated since Windows 2000.

Many people are still having hardware problems such as dealing with a crippled Bluetooth file transfer which can no longer automatically receive files, thereby making the user invoke every single transfer. Many others are having charging problems with Android phones.

Even Windows 7 needlessly made it difficult to use more than two power schemes, which many people who work their computer hard may want to use. Windows 7 made the computer management event logs terribly slow to sort on even a modern computer. Windows 7 also made it next to impossible to format a large FAT32 drive.

With poor privacy practices, a disrespect for the user as far as upgrades, recent unfair browser marking practices, a lack of UI vision, will another company ever dare make a competing commercial operating system for PC compatibles?

Bruce66423 writes: An MIT PhD student has filed a suit in Federal court alleging that the use of a 21yo IBM green screen controlled search software to search the Department of Justice databases in response to Freedom of information requests constitutes an deliberate failure to provide the data that should be being produced

HughPickens.com writes: Getting caught in a tech support loop — waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again — is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most mild-mannered person. Now Kate Murphy writes at the NYT that just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through as 92 percent of customer service managers say their agents could be more effective and 74 percent say their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences. “Don’t think companies haven’t studied how far they can take things in providing the minimal level of service,” says Justin Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research and editorial at ICMI. “Some organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are on hold, you’re hearing messages like, ‘If you’d like premium support, call this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately.’”

Mental health experts say there are ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster and being negative in your dealings with others can quickly paint you as a complainer no one wants to work with. Don’t bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either. You’re just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted ahead of time that you have come unhinged. To get better service by phone, dial the prompt designated for “sales” or “to place an order,” which almost always gets you an onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated language difficulties. Finally customer support experts recommended using social media, like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not met.

William Robinson writes: The UDS Project (Ultra Deep Survey), part of UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey, have recently released the final data providing spectacular infrared images of the distant Universe have provided astronomers with the deepest view ever obtained. The UDS mapped a total area four times the size of full moon and detected over 250,000 galaxies, including several hundred observed within the first billion year after Big Bang. This was done since 2005 by observing the same patch of sky repeatedly, obtaining more than 1,000 hours of exposure time and utilizing the power of infrared to provide the deepest view ever obtained over a large area in the sky,

HughPickens.com writes: Employees and employers alike have the right under at-will employment laws in almost all states to end their relationship without notice, for any reason, but the two-week rule is a widely accepted standard of workplace conduct. Now Sue Shellenbarger writes at the WSJ that employers say a growing number of workers are leaving without giving two weeks’ notice. Some bosses blame young employees who feel frustrated by limited prospects or have little sense of attachment to their workplace. But employment experts say some older workers are quitting without notice as well. They feel overworked or unappreciated after years of laboring under pay cuts and expanded workloads imposed during the recession. One employee at Dupray, a customer-service rep, scheduled a meeting and announced she was quitting, then rose and headed for the exit. She seemed surprised when the director of human resources stopped her and explained that employees are expected to give two weeks’ notice. “She said, ‘I’ve been watching ‘Suits,’ and this is how it happens,’ ” referring to the TV drama set in a law firm.

According to Shellenbarger, quitting without notice is sometimes justified. Employees with access to proprietary information, such as those working in sales or new-product development, face a conflict of interest if they accept a job with a competitor. Employees in such cases typically depart right away—ideally, by mutual agreement. It can also be best to exit quickly if an employer is abusive, or if you suspect your employer is doing something illegal. More often, quitting without notice “is done in the heat of emotion, by someone who is completely frustrated, angry, offended or upset,” says David Lewis, president of OperationsInc., a Norwalk, Conn., human-resources consulting firm. That approach can burn bridges and generate bad references. Phyllis Hartman says employees have a responsibility to try to communicate about what’s wrong. “Start figuring out if there is anything you can do to fix it. The worst that can happen is that nobody listens or they tell you no."

MojoKid writes: ARM has been working closely with TSMC for years now. Over the last six years or so especially, ARM and TSMC have collaborated to ensure that TSMC's cutting-edge process technologies work well with ARM's processor IP. However recently, ARM just announced the successful tape-out of a test chip featuring next-generation, 64-Bit ARM v8-A mobile processor cores, codenamed Artemis, manufactured using TSMC's upcoming 10nm FinFET process technology. The test chip features what ARM calls an Artemis cluster. It's essentially a quad-core processor with power management IP, a single-shader Mali graphics core, AMBA AXI interconnect, and test ROMs connected to a second cluster by an asynchronous bridge that features the memory subsystem, which is stacked with a Cortex M core that handles control logic, some timers, SRAM, and external IO. Compared to 16nm FinFET+, at nominal voltage, the 10nm test chip offered a 12% performance improvement in a similar power envelope. In super-overdrive mode (Vsod), the Artemis test chip offered similar performance, but at 30% lower power.SoCs for premium mobile devices with next-generation cores produced on the 10nm process node are expected to arrive later in the second half of this year.